Research report

The finite sample performance of semi- and nonparametric estimators for treatment effects and policy evaluation

BP2-STS

    01.02.2015

55

English This paper investigates the fi nite sample performance of a comprehensive set of semi- and nonparametric estimators for treatment and policy evaluation. In contrast to previous simulation studies which mostly considered semiparametric approaches relying on parametric propensity score estimation, we also consider more fl exible approaches based on semi- or nonparametric propensity scores, nonparametric regression, and direct covariate matching. In addition to (pair, radius, and kernel) matching, inverse probability weighting, regression, and doubly robust estimation, our studies also cover recently proposed estimators such as genetic matching, entropy balancing, and empirical likelihood estimation. We vary a range of features (sample size, selection into treatment, effect heterogeneity, and correct/misspecification) in our simulations and fi nd that several nonparametric estimators by and large outperform commonly used treatment estimators using a parametric propensity score. Nonparametric regression, nonparametric doubly robust estimation, nonparametric IPW, and one-to-many covariate matching perform best.
Collections
Faculty
Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management
Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
Series statement
  • Working Papers SES ; 454
License
License undefined
Identifiers
  • RERO DOC 234687
  • RERO R008073156
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/304092
Statistics

Document views: 62 File downloads:
  • WP_SES_454.pdf: 137